The comprehensive global information network broadcasting system and implementation thereof is designed to be used to provide a plurality of, what is commonly referred to as, Internet service providers with updated information through the use of high speed satellite links directly to the local Internet service provider from a centralized location. The satellite broadcasting system is combined with servers known as caching or proxy servers located at the client site which serve to store web and other data until the end user needs to access the data and a master cache center which coordinates the selection and transmission of information to those client sites via the satellite broadcasting system. The caching of data objects as close to the end user as possible will require less data to transit the backbones networks. The client site cache communicates to the master cache center via a connection to the Internet and the client site cache receives from the master cache center via the satellite broadcasting system and, in some cases, the Internet connection. Upon the receipt of a request from an Internet service provider, the information at the master cache will be transmitted from a ground station to a satellite and will be broadcast to all receiving Internet service providers using the broadcast system which overlays a capability onto the existing Internet that will allow real broadcast so that the data object can be transmitted once and received at all subscriber locations.
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/039,710, filed Mar. 16, 1998, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,233, incorporated by reference in its entirety.
Systems and methods are provided for delivering content in a communications system. A communications system is provided that includes a plurality of terminals and a content director. The terminals are adapted to communicate via a communications network, and are each capable of requesting and thereafter receiving content via the communications network. The content director, on the other hand, is capable of receiving a request for content from one terminal. The content director can then push the content to the terminal based upon the request, and push the content to at least one other terminal before the other terminals request the content. Each terminal can have an associated user interest correlation with each other terminal. In such instances, the content director can push the content to other terminals based upon the user interest correlation of the other terminals with respect to the terminal requesting the content.
The techniques described employ a cooperative organization of network service providers to provide improved distributed network services. The network service providers that are constituent to the cooperative organization represent various perspectives within the overall Internet content distribution network, and may include network owners, telecommunications carriers, network access providers, hosting providers and distribution network owners, the latter being an entity that caches content at a plurality of locations distributed on the network. Aspects include managing content caches by receiving control signals specifying actions related to cached content that is distributed on a network, such as the Internet, and forwarding the control signals through to the caching locations to implement the actions represented by the control signals, thus providing content publishers the capability of refreshing their content regardless of where it is cached. Aspects include managing content caches by receiving activity records that contain statistics related to requests for cached content, segregating the statistics according to which content publisher provides the content associated with the statistics, and providing to each content publisher statistics corresponding to content provided by that content publisher, thus allowing them to monitor requests for their content regardless of where it may be cached on the network.
In the disclosed information delivery scheme for delivering WWW information provided by information servers on the Internet to mobile computers connected to the Internet through a wireless network, a plurality of cache servers capable of caching WWW information provided by the information servers are provided in association with the wireless network. The cache servers can be managed by receiving a message indicating at least a connected location of a mobile computer in the wireless network from the mobile computer, selecting one or more cache servers located nearby the mobile computer according to the message, and controlling these one or more cache servers to cache selected WWW information selected for the mobile computer, so as to enable faster accesses to the selected WWW information by the mobile computer. Also, the cache servers can be managed by selecting one or more cache servers located within a geographic range defined for an information provider who provides WWW information from an information server, and controlling these one or more cache servers to cache selected WWW information selected for the information provider, so as to enable faster accesses to the selected WWW information by the mobile computer.
A method and apparatus for controlling multicast group subscriptions in a multicast distribution circuit is presented. When a router included in the multicast circuit receives notification to terminate support of a particular multicast group (group leave request), data flow with respect to that multicast group is initially maintained on the communication link coupling the router to the hosts. Queries are issued to hosts on the communication link to determine whether continued support of the particular group is desired by any hosts coupled to the communication link. If, while waiting for a positive response to the queries issued, a request to join an additional multicast group is received, bandwidth availability on the communication link is examined to determine if adequate bandwidth is available for supporting the newly requested group addition. If adequate bandwidth is available, the newly requested group is added to those groups supported on the communication link. However, if adequate bandwidth for support of the newly requested group is not available, one or more groups that are pending termination (group specific queries have been issued for these groups) are selected for early termination in order to make enough bandwidth available to support the newly requested group addition. The selection criteria utilized to determine the groups to be terminated may be based on a variety of parameters.
In a network system for transmitting and receiving contents with one or more pieces of additional information corresponding to an internal attribute of the contents, a contents server can decide the data to be transmitted without regard to a division transfer method supposed for a contents receiving apparatus. The contents server includes storage unit holding one or more contents, contents data acquisition unit receiving a data request including request range information of the contents out of consideration for the additional information and extracting the data of the contents in a requested range out of the storage unit, and transmitting unit transmitting the extracted data of the contents with the additional information. The contents receiving apparatus includes receiving unit receiving the data of the contents with the additional information that are transmitted from the transmitting unit, received data decision unit deciding a receiving request range of the contents out of consideration for the additional information, and data request transmitting unit transmitting the data request including request range information.
